Page 9 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 4 - Fall 2020

EH: ERIC HOLST
DT: DAVE TENNY
AB: DR.ANN BARTUSKA RB: ROBERT BONNIE
EH: Dave Tenny is the Founding President and CEO of the National Alliance of Forest Owners. Ann Bartuska is Senior Advisor at Resources for the Future. Robert Bonnie is an Executive in Residence at the Nicholas Institute at Duke
University.
We all seem to agree that forests
and forest products can provide a real climate solution, while returning significant economic benefits to rural communities. Why does this traditionally contentious issue seem to lose some of the contention when we start talking about natural climate solutions?
DT:I think we’re in a moment of time when a lot of ideas have
converged into a few simple premises. First, we all agree that the forestry sector has this tremendous capacity to produce true carbon mitigation to scale. I like to think of it through the three S’s. The first is carbon sequestration in trees. The second is carbon storage in forest products. And the third is carbon substitution or the substitution of forest products for more carbon intensive or environmentally harmful alternatives. The second thing we agree on is that strong forest products markets are really critical to maintaining this mitigation capacity. And the third thing that we agree on is that the incredible contri-
butions that this sector can provide really transcend adminis- trations or politics or
agendas;
they’re just intrinsically vital to the overallclimatechangesolution.
AB:I spent a lot of time in my career with private landowners, whether they be forest landowners, range landowners or [owners of] agricultural lands. And one thing they all have in common is a desire to stay on the land and be productive and to be
multigenerational.
We’re all in agreement because to be
able to keep that kind of landscape requires work and requires investment, to enable
people who
are in
DR. ANN BARTUSKA
Senior Advisor
Resources for the Future
ROBERT BONNIE
Executive in Residence
Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University
ERIC HOLST
Associate Vice President for Working Lands
Environmental Defense Fund
DAVE TENNY
President and CEO
National Alliance of Forest Owners
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